I report on how consciousness and community are transcending god and state, locally in Washington, DC, and globally, where ever I see progress - or backsliding, including on the feminist front! "Imagine there's no countries, and no religion, too." Explore this blog, think about the issues, comment constructively, connect via social media.

Monday, April 23, 2007

Partial Birth Abortion, Bad! Depleted Uranium, Good!

To the top and left are photos of aborted, late term deformed fetuses and of babies born alive in Iraq, deformed allegedly because of the effects of the effects of the millions of pounds of depleted uranium ("d.u."). The waste of nuclear bombs was used as armor plating against Iraq in the 1991 Gulf War and even more so in the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq..Can you tell which babies are which?.Many people who scream and yell because a few thousand late term abortions are performed using an unpleasant procedure called Intrauterine Cranial Decompression (aka "partial birth abortion") never complain about all the deformed babies who result because American and Israeli militarists use any means necessary to rule the Middle East and exploit is resources for their own good. Depleted Uranium is a GOOD thing if it "saves Americans' lives.".However, consider this, all you "pro-lifers" who support the Supreme Court's recent ban on "partial birth abortion." If you knew your Iraq veteran spouces' d.u. irradiated sperm or ovaries had produced this sort of monstrosity, would you let the grossly deformed fetus be born live? When you discovered only in the fourth or fifth month of gestation the grossness of the deformies, would you abort it? And would you use whatever medical procedure was safest for the woman's health? .I am sure that hundreds and even thousands of husbands and wives will face this choice. And if we use nuclear bombs against Iran and that nuclear radiation spreads worldwide, tens of thousands of Americans might face that choice..See more medical facts about abortion. The statistics on how many of these Intrauterine Cranial Decompression ("partial birth") abortions are performed yearly are contested. Sure there may be some greedy or lazy or incompentent doctors who use this procedure unnecessarily. However, this is no excuse for banning a medical procedure that protects a woman's life..The National Organization for Women's response reads in part: "The law is so vaguely written that it may ban the most common abortion procedure used after 12 weeks of pregnancy, and there is no exception to allow its use if the woman's health is in serious danger. The joint ruling in Gonzales v. Carhart and Gonzales v. Planned Parenthood is a major step in the campaign to outlaw all abortions, first by chipping away at and then by fully overturning Roe v. Wade.".Why are there so many late term abortions? To quote a wikipedia article: "In 1987, the Alan Guttmacher Institute collected questionnaires from 1,900 women who were at abortion clinics procuring abortions. Of the 1,900, 420 had been pregnant for 16 or more weeks. These 420 women were asked to choose among a menu of reasons why they had not obtained the abortions earlier in their pregnancies. Two percent (2%) said "a fetal problem was diagnosed late in pregnancy". 71% responded "did not recognize that she was pregnant or misjudged gestation", 48% said "found it hard to make arrangements", and 33% said "was afraid to tell her partner or parents".. In one word: PATRIARCHY. Poor education about signs of pregnancy - or denial of pregnancy because of fear. Fear that boyfriends or husbands will abuse or abandon them; fear of being punished or even kicked out of the home by parents. And even those who have no fear often lack health insurance or ready funds to pay for an abortion, especially if it involves travel and overnight stays because abortion facilities have been driven out of their area..Why do so many patriarchs want to outlaw abortion? After all this means that some men will be forced to marry some pregnant women -- or at least support the children they father?.The answer, in screaming bold capitals, is simply: CONTROL OF WOMEN'S BODIES MEANS CONTROL OF WOMEN'S LIVES. It's simply the psychopathology of control. (Read comments on Howard K. Stern's means of controlling Anna Nicole Smith, even if it destroyed her body, in two posts below.). Want to get rid of late term abortion? Take on PATRIARCHY..See my article on getting rid of the leading institution of patriarchal control - the nation state. WOMAN VS. THE NATION STATE. In it I write:.Patriarchy and patriotism — both from the same root word, pater (father) — are simply two sides of the same authoritarian coin. Patriarchy is the ideology that males should rule. Patriotism is the worship of male-dominated states. Males have created — and still create — political culture worldwide, so it’s no surprise that male values, needs and ambitions dominate..Male-dominated culture — patriarchy — discourages individual men and women from expressing the mix of assertion and cooperation, independence and compassion that is natural to individual men and women. Our culture indoctrinates men — often savagely —into dominance and aggression, and bullies women into dependence and passivity..What would seem to be the primary value of human culture, the one for which all must be sacrificed? I believe it is the need for males to prove manhood – personally, politically and militarily. This value will soon destroy the world if women and sensible, non-dominating men, do not create a new culture that values the nonviolent self-actualization of all peoples.